zankoku_zen

In the imp: Lavender and mint! On Skin: Lavender explosion! I get whiffs of herbs and a freshness that I am going to attribute to either the lime or the mint. On Drydown: Still lavender. Noooooo. Verdict: If this is a 'green' scent, mine is definitely a pale, translucent green. It's like an herby lavender. No mint. No lime. Nada. Just lavender and herbs. Oh, Envy, you break my heart so. I was expecting minty goodness and got florals instead...

Scherezade is pretty but I have to admit that it isn't for me. The mustiness might be from the red musk. Different people work better with different musks. Red tends to be closer to "skin musk" White is fairly light. Black musk has been described as "feral". I think there's a musk discussion under either BPAL Chatter or Recommendations.

I have to be a bit daft because I don't really like martinis since I don't like gin... I prefer the vodka martini variations and I didn't read the reviews for this one either. In the imp: Gin... which apparently is the juniper berries. On Skin: Juniper explosion. I get no pine. Simply... gin. I have gin on my skin. I've sloshed a number of drinks before and I know what gin smells like on skin. And this is gin! On Drydown: Still gin. It's sharp, effervescent, bitter and I can see how it could be refreshing once you get past the bitterness. I never could. Verdict: I can't drink or WEAR martinis apparently. I'm not a fan of the gin, in either form. It was a great learning experience since now I know juniper and I aren't necessarily friends... or rather juniper loves me and I don't love it back. A bravo to Beth and the Lab though. This smells like a drink.... and alcoholic at that. Bravo!

I've tried both Snow Moon and Skadi and wasn't thrilled with the pine note in either since apparently it decided that it loved me... and was going to shower me with pine sap... and not allow any other component to love me. I've also had problems with the 'snow' component from the Lab. Most notably Snow White... *sigh* In the imp: Very piney and reminiscent of both Skadi and Snow Moon. More Skadi because I get a whiff of some berries. On Skin: Wet, it's pretty much like Skadi without the pine explosion. There is a definite berry note on my skin. This could be problematic since berries also tend to explode on my skin... but perhaps in this blend the sharpness of the pine will balance the sweetness of the berries. There is a definite cologney sort of smell, sharp, bright, clean. On Drydown: Still no snow. But the cologne sort of smell is very crisp and clean, like sunlight off snow. I don't get a citrus connotation, which I usually associate with crisp & clean smells. The pine is still there, but seems to be playing well with the berries. No coconut either! Yeah! Verdict: I can see why this is called girlie. It reminds me to an eager girl, all bundled up, enjoying the snow, the skiing and the ski instructors. She is bright and cheery, flirty and charismatic. I can picture that this is her perfume when you come in for a kiss, and you smell it wafting in from under the turtleneck and with snowflakes caught in her hair, she's laughing softly in your ear. It's a very wintery scent. Again, like Tess who swapped with me for this decant, I'm strangely attracted to it... and winter is probably my least favorite season.

I don't get a strong dirt note... in fact, I don't get a dirt note from this scent at all. I thought it was lilies and some other floral, which made me think of wisteria but wisteria is not listed among the components or in the description. It's a soft feminine perfume floral, with a drowning aquatic background. It's very feminine in a melancholic way. Unfortunately there is something in this that turns into soap on my skin. Very clean soap but it remains a soapy-undertone throughout after the drydown. But yes, I don't get the smell of dry leaves... unless it's some sort of pressed memory sort of feel, or dirt... or any real wood for the matter.

Thanks to nineveh for swapping sniffies with me! In the imp: Smells like melon, cucumber! and some sort of berry floral. On Skin: The strongest note upon application is the cucumber/melon scent. I do get the watery-sort of undertone with it and the brush of some light florals, which might be the moonflower because it shares the same sort of smell as Nuit without being so heavy. I get whiffs of orchid. On Drydown: There's something about this that reminds me to a BBW scent and I think it's the moonflower. My skin loves florals... so it loves this by extension. I can't help sniffing my wrist. It's cool but not overly aquatic, floral but not exploding. The cucumber and melon notes give it a freshness. I can definitely see why people are crazy about this. Verdict: I can't wait until April rolls around. I am ordering a bottle of this. I don't care if I have to massacre and sacrifice one of my husband's credit cards to get this. I want it. It's light, fresh, cool and a floral aquatic. Right up my alley. It's so pretty. If I could, I'd try to find an imp... but since it's nigh-impossible, I will just count pennies, rescue quarters from the gutter, pick up dimes from dirty asphalt until April rolls around. Thankfully there is a Blue Moon this year. I will shut up now because I have waxed rhapsodically about this enough.

I got a bottle cap to test from nineveh! It smells very lily, clean and yet, musky which I think is the amber. I pressed the bottle cap to my skin and it's very faint. But what I got was linen and the warm glow of amber. It's a white floral... but there was something almost slightly standoffish about this. This isn't some girl that is sighing forlornly or dreaming about love. It's very self-containted. I don't know. I like this scent and yet I don't. It's warm and yet the vibe is more stand-offish than welcoming. If Berenice were a girl, I wouldn't know what to make of her. She would be the girl that was perfectly nice and proper but that didn't want further intimacies and I would never be able to figure out what it is that she was really thinking.

Awww sad. I think most aquatics do end up having a floral component and I suspect that it's usually some kind of lily. The only one that might not be that way is Tears. But I haven't ever tried it and it's extremely rare to get. I do recall Bluebeard being salty sea air and violets. If you could handle the violets, that might be another aquatic scent.

That happened with me and Tempest. I couldn't smell it anymore and then I re-dabbed on the same spots. Tempest explosion! I got the lily note in it to come out.... and I mean come out and like envelop me in a two foot radius! It wasn't bad... but it was definitely smelly!

Oh that's sad. For me, it's mainly red musk, with a little patchouli (one where it behaves) and some floral top note which isn't overwhelming. You might want to try Mania. Granted, that starts as grapefruit and ends up being red musk and light florals on me.

Silence. It isn't sad per se. But the silent contemplation can be painful or simple depending on your mood. It can feel infinite or tragic. I found Desdemona to be pretty sad as well.

Definitely try out City in the Sea... What about Bluebeard? I remember that the violet in that one smelled positively salty...

Neo-Tokyo has a "metallic" undertone to it, but it's mostly citrus/floral/ozone sharpness. If Steampunk could be a scent, it would be Neo-Tokyo.

The best thing about BPAL is that it does change a little as the oil "settles" and "dries" on your skin. O is just my favorite honey&spicy sexy. There's just something so warm and sensuous about it. For some people it's about the aged Snake Oil. That ended up being too vanilla for me. O was just perfect once the amber started to peek out more. It sounds like it was a hit with you too!

Yeah!!! Imps arrived. I'm fond of O, Blood Kiss (so sexy), Scherezade, Lust, Sea of Glass and Neo-Tokyo. You'll have to let me know how Sin is like. It's on my list and I haven't tried it yet. BTW, if you like Lust... try Mania. I found them to be very similar, except that Mania was softer than Lust (slightly more floral, less powdery because of the myrrh but just as sexy). If you ever get a decant of House of Mirrors, I found that to be very much like Sea of Glass. Same with the discontinued Ingenue. I couldn't get the comparisons from Sea of Glass out of my head... probably because of the strong lily components in both.

In the imp: Woodsy and vanilla-ish On Skin: Most predominantly I can smell a woodsy-smell which I am assuming is the cedar. It's got that same thick vanilla that Snake Oil has. The sassafras is very predominant and I get that "root beer" sort of smell. On Drydown: The sassafras mellows out considerably. I have a very warm spicy vanilla with a wood undertone. It's very masculine. Verdict: I can see how this scent makes people think of the Wild West. This is a ruggedly masculine scent on me. Not swarthy, simply... very male. I don't know if this is up the husband's ally since he prefers scents like Dorian and Wilde but I can see this being absolutely knock out on the right guy. Very tasty.

It's great that you get to see him for a month! I second Veil and Morgause. I don't think that Baobhan Sith and Aizen Myoo are right... both of them, at least on me, are very citrusy florals... and I don't associate them with the 'vintage' or perfumey vibe that the 20s - 40s have. Pretty dress you're wearing too. Very evocative.

Drink some soup with ginger brewed into it. That might help. I like Alice when it's that time of the month. I like comfort scents. Or something sunny and cheery like ELF. ETA: And this might be TMI but a couple of days before I *start*, I have this insane craving for new scents. I need new smellies. If I don't have a swap coming in, I end up going somewhere and buying lotion/soap/commercial perfume. Admittedly the commercial perfume happened over two years ago... but that's what tipped me off.

In the imp: bright, sunny flowers On skin: bright, lush flowers. I can smell the daffodils and the plum. I get whiffs of the orchid. It's a bit on the sweet side. On Drydown: It mellows out a little after an hour. But it is big and bright! Verdict: Fun and playful. Bright, lush flowers. It's a bit too sickly sweet on my skin but I can imagine this being absolutely gorgeous on the right person. *sigh* But it is pretty..

In the imp: Sharp and fruity On Skin: It's like a sharp citrusy fruit, possibly either a combination of the mandarin and the mango? On Drydown: I sniff deeply and I get a warm base, which I'm suspecting is the sandalwood. I can smell the mango more distinctively. Verdict: It's a pretty scent without being either too fruity or too floral. I'm very torn on how exactly I feel about it. It's not a happy scent... nor is it melancholic. Nor does it really make me think of zombies, despite the ghostly sort of feel that this scent has. I'll give this a whirl another day and see if I can clarify my feelings on this.

This is my 1000th post and I can't help but think it's rather fitting In the bottle: vanilla tea On Skin: I get something musky with tea and vanilla and lavender And then it disappears.... wait... come back... On Drydown: It's back! It's smells like sugary tea with something else, very creamy. On the boy: Started out as a lavender/vanilla tea and moved into a musky sort of vanilla on him. It was a bit femme on him but he still likes it. He loves Wilde more. But Dorian is a close second. Another bottle love! Yeah! Verdict: This is invariably a bottle order because we both like it. I like the fact that it's sweet without being gaggingly so, vanilla without being ALL vanilla and lightly floral without being too floral. God, does that description make any sense? Lovely, lovely, lovely. If I were Ted, I'd be so immensely flattered. This was a labor of love and it's gorgeous. Thanks to Beth for sharing this with the rest of us, because Ted isn't the only one smelling faboo. Faboo I say. /end of fangirling. Mmmm... Dorian...

I think this is 05, since it is a empty sniffie bottle. In the bottle: Smoky and boozy On Skin: It has that smoky component that Samhain does, along with booze and sugar. Definitely an autumn scent. I get the same vibe that I do with Samhain... but sweeter. On Drydown: Spicy, smoky and very faint. Unfortunately my skin eats this right up. Verdict: I'd have to slather to get a good throw going. On the other hand, I wasn't really all that interested in this scent because it didn't sound like something I would like. Honestly, I should know better by now. This is like a drunken fest eating candy with friends around a bonfire on a crisp autumn night. While Samhain is more serious, Devil's Night has a more playful edge and yet maintain smoky and mysterious qualities. This was very likeable... and maybe I'll hunt down an imp of it. PS: Great job Labbies!

I tried Carnal and I got mandarin juicyness, tempered by the fig. It wasn't altogether juicy fruit.... it was simply very lush. It wasn't overtly foodie.

I'm with cordia in finding a patchouli scent that works. So far, I've got Lust and Namaste, which worked. However, both are/were in the Like category but not something I was crazy about. Voodoo ended up smelling like a root beer float. Wilde was a lavender cologne for a guy. Imp, Desire, Hetairae, Sed Non Satiata, the Caterpillar were straight up patchouli. Greed ended up smelling like sweaty money on my skin. I mean, it was the scent of money... but I didn't want to smell like that! Mme. Moriarty ended up smelling like a sweaty male! So if cordia doesn't mind the occasional hijacks, I'll also post here. Instead of repeating, since I've taken several of the suggestion given to her and trying to find something that works on my skin too!

Third the Spellbound recommendation. That's the best rose scent in my opinion (not counting LEs like Rose Red).